


An Intriguing Proposal

by melbie



Category: Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Genre: Alternative Perspective, Canon Compliant, F/M, First Meetings, Minor Violence, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26102533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melbie/pseuds/melbie
Summary: A deep dive into Alessandro's perspective leading up to and including his and Catalina's first meeting. Features a snowy mission, some light Instagram stalking, and one sucker-punched Italian.
Relationships: Catalina Baylor/Alessandro Sagredo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	An Intriguing Proposal

_Brrrrr. Brrrrr. Brrrrrr._

Alessandro Sagredo mumbled a curse and fumbled for the button on his Bluetooth headset. He was rather preoccupied at the moment. Whoever was on the other line would have to settle for a quarter of his attention.

In his left hand, he held a machete. In his right, the ripped collar of a mostly unconscious thug. Around him stretched miles of snowy Nepalese mountains. Thick layers of frost-covered grass crunched beneath his boots. The secret cabin he’d “rented” for this unpleasant stay had suddenly become less secret, and he was smack in the middle of settling up the rent.

_Brrrrrr. Brrrrrrr._

The thug in his grip gave a half-hearted swing of his arm. Alessandro shook him lightly. 

“Sssshh,” he crooned. “I must take this.” He plunged the machete in the frozen ground, still within easy reach, and managed to hit the button. _“Pronto.”_

A cultured male voice came over the line. “Count Sagredo?” 

“Speaking.”

“A pleasure. I’m calling from the Texas Office of House Records. Do you have a moment to speak?

 _Texas, eh?_ He graciously waved the same hand holding his thug. “By all means.”

“I hope I’m not calling at an inconvenient time?”

At that the bruised and bloody man gave a gurgled complaint. Alessandro sighed. One decisive chop at the back of the man’s neck and he crumpled like a depressurized tin can, falling forward with a muffled _thunk!_

“Not at all, not at all,” he said breezily. He wiped his hand on the outside of his snow jacket and then smoothed it through his lengthening hair. Snow had begun to settle in the back collar of his coat. He left the machete to dematerialize on the ground and began the stroll back to his soon-to-be vacated cabin.

The Texan Records Keeper had a Hispanic lilt to his tone, soft and pleasing to the ear. “Splendid. As to why I’ve called, the Texas Office of House Records is in the process of registering an emerging House with some truly unique magic. It’s an exciting time for our community.” 

Errgh. Alessandro tried to keep the disappointment from his tone. “A new House? How lovely.”

Another pack of rats signing up to devour each other. Lovely indeed.

“One member of the House is reported to display a power unlike any we’ve seen in the United States. We’re still gathering more information about it, but the implications alone for how it will impact…”

Alessandro had finally reached his cabin. The front door was neatly off its hinges. Several windows sported jagged broken panes and what remained of the already sparse interior was now rather windswept. As though multiple fights had broken out within while a certain handsome Italian had been making a valiant attempt at some goddamned shut-eye. 

He righted a chair while nodding to himself, only half-listening to the Record Keeper’s excited babble. Primes. Power. Blood. It was always the same. 

“As such, the Office of House Records would like to humbly request Alessandro Sagredo of House Sagredo act as an evaluator for these upcoming trials.”

 _Wait...what?_

He tried to mentally rewind the conversation to where he’d stopped listening. _New House, weird power, trials, me...oh._

“I’m honored by the Office’s request.” He crouched under a half-smashed desk to retrieve some scattered throwing knives. “Truly. However, I cannot help but wonder if there are no available Antistasi Houses a little more...shall we say...close at hand?” He glanced out the broken window at the snow-covered mountain tops peeking through the foggy clouds of early morning Nepal. “Italy is not exactly down the road and a little to the left.”

He could hear the smile in the Record Keeper’s voice. “Naturally, we do have several such Houses on call. However, none will do for the test I have in mind. The young lady in question is uniquely gifted. The nature of her abilities, you see. As such, we’ve no other choice than to ask for the strongest Antistasi Prime on record so that there can be no question of her legitimacy.” 

Alessandro sniffed. He wasn’t immune to a little flattery. And a young lady? _Tell me more, strange man…_

“Very well,” he said, taking a seat on the thin mattress. “What sort of magic does she have then?”

“Love.”

His brow furrowed. “Love?”

“Of a sort. All in the mind. We think mental, perhaps even psionic, yet too powerful to be considered such. The target of her magic will fall hopelessly in love with her and their only thought will be how to make her happy. One report and a team of eyewitnesses saw her walk alone into a fortress under siege during a military operation. Every soldier inside the building followed her out like lovesick puppies. Not a single soul injured. When she left, they all became despondent. Grown men and women, hardened soldiers, all sobbing at the loss of her. It is simply astounding.”

Alessandro’s back straightened. His brain was working a mile a minute as he pondered this mysterious young woman. Such a power. To turn the tide of any battle just by hypnotizing an army into falling in love. No negotiations, no ransom. It sounded like a blessing for any strike team.

“That would be quite the thing,” he mused. “I can see your dilemma. How on Earth to test for love?”

The Record Keeper’s voice lowered with genuine sympathy. “I’m afraid that, as with so many mages, Ms. Baylor’s talents come with a heavy cost. Over time, those inflicted by her magic will become so obsessed with her they will want a piece of her. Anything they can obtain, whether it be hair, skin, limbs…”

He swallowed instinctively. Not a blessing. A curse.

“The family has kept their magic a secret for some time, but now they wish to form a House. It is the opinion of this Office that only a Prime of your caliber can put her magic through its paces. Will you test the young Ms. Baylor?” 

Alessandro brushed a hand through his hair as he thought. An intriguing proposal. An interesting girl. The challenge was worthy of his skills. His ego had been sufficiently flattered. He was officially done with this damned mission and yearned for a warmer climate. There was no reason to refuse. 

“Very well, sir. You have yourself a tester.”

“We thank you,” the older man’s voice positively quivered with anticipation.

“When will the trials be held?”

“As soon as possible.” 

Alessandro took another glance out the window at the frozen tundra. 

“Perhaps in a week’s time…?”

* * *

  
_Catalina Baylor. Catalina Baylor._

Two days later, Alessandro reclined in the plush seating of a private jet. Amazing how one’s surroundings could change so drastically in so little time. Wind rushed by the half-shaded windows as the jet hurtled over the Atlantic Ocean. Cool air wafted from the A/C above him, lifting his now washed and dried hair. The remains of a delectable Beef Wellington, roasted potatoes, salted greens, and a buttered roll lingered on the low table before him, and a tumbler of whiskey sat by his open laptop. His fingers tapped relentlessly against the leather armrest. 

_Catalina, Catalina._

He’d searched her name for hours and came up dry. How difficult could a young woman in her teens be to find in this day and age of social media?

She had an Instagram, but it was shockingly bereft. Her profile grid was an array of aesthetically pleasing muted pastel images. Cups of tea, spines of books and reviews, clippings of flowers, a new bottle of foundation. Not a single full picture of herself. 

The search terms “Baylor + Texas + magic” offered a wealth of information about her elder sister and prospective head of House, Nevada Baylor. Financial records for Baylor Investigations, the family firm. Images of Nevada Baylor in downtown Texas following a massive firebreak. Nevada Baylor tied to heavy hitter Primes with names like Mad Rogan, Adam Pierce, Linus Duncan. 

One headline after the other. Nevada, Nevada, Nevada.

He briefly thought he had hit pay dirt with a search of her name and local schools. The search engine had managed to unearth a decade-old headline: “Local Middle School Nerd Team Wins Texas Math Thing,” or some such.

A grainy image of several pink-cheeked children smiled back at him. Under the picture were their names listed in order. Catalina Baylor was between two other girls, nearly obscured from view, with a curtain long dark hair covering part of her face. She could’ve been anyone.

Knowing what he did of her magic, it was impossible not to sympathize with the girl. She would’ve spent her whole life trying to fade into the background at a time when most children were encouraged to shine. Alessandro felt that although they were relatively close in age, they might as well have come from different dimensions. 

Back to the search. Nevada Baylor continued to dominate the results. He decided to switch targets. He found an obituary for their father, the founder of their family agency. A military ceremony that included their mother. An abandoned blog filled with angsty teenage drivel written by their younger cousin, Leon. A Herald account belonging to...

Aaah, at last. Here lay the wealth. Alessandro fought the temptation to punch a fist in the air. The youngest Baylor sister, Arabella, was a social media butterfly. A cursory search of Herald showed pages of fanfiction, lists of posts, and albums upons albums of photos, all with their own clever subtitling. Surely Catalina would be in one or two, he thought. 

But after the 15th group shot and 30th selfie, he found a lack of will to scroll. It was too much to take in. This girl did not even have the patience to weed out the best takes from a photo burst. The grid of samey images was overloading his brain in a way no investigation ever had. 

He certainly wasn’t one to throw stones. At that precise moment, his Instagram updated automatically with an old picture of him reclining on a beach, the name of which he’d already forgotten. He quickly turned the phone over. Back to Arabella. 

Arabella with a puppy. Arabella in a mirror. Arabella’s friends from school. Arabella’s cousins playing video games. _Ah-ha!_

 _“Lo trovato!”_ He exclaimed in a pique of triumph.

A family picture from last Christmas. The identities were unmistakable. The grandmother, mother, two male cousins, two sisters, and her. Catalina. 

He felt his heart race as though he’d run several miles. The thrill of finding a target. But none of his previous targets had ever been this...pretty. 

Catalina had long, dark hair that looked silky to the touch. Bright eyes that seemed to glow with happiness. Slender with the budding curves of a girl on the cusp of womanhood. A bashful smile with full pink lips. A young man could spend all day dreaming about lips like those. 

The plane shook with sudden turbulence. The little rumble was enough to break him from his reverie. 

_Why did we want to look her up in the first place?_ He asked himself. Curiosity. That’s all. She’s cute, so what? Plenty of girls are cute. 

_She’s mysterious and powerful,_ the little voice in the back of his head whispered. _Her magic brings down armies. She would be a real challenge for us. At last. And also...she’s cute._

Alessandro bit his lip and reopened Catalina’s Instagram page. 10 followers? He clicked on it. All family members. And bots.

An inexplicable irritation rose up within him. Knowing what he did, seeing the lack of her presence, it was just unfair. 

Why should a lovely girl like Catalina Baylor be overlooked, even neglected by the internet’s eternal memory? She already carried a terrible burden and used that same cursed magic to save people. She deserved more. Better. At the very least, a little attention. 

Alessandro’s index finger lingered over the blue “Follow” button. Attention. Now, _that_ he could provide.

* * *

The day of reckoning had arrived at last. The official trial to determine the formation of House Baylor. 

Alessandro waited in a soundproof room on the outskirts of the cavernous arena. He studied the lineup of arbiters - nearly all of Texas’s heavy hitting Primes were in attendance. Not for the first time he wondered what kind of influence this fledgling House could possibly have in such a short amount of time with so few connections? Why the secrecy of a closed trial? And why such a large space for testing? 

The detective in him itched to learn more. But all thoughts were silenced at the appearance of the Baylor family. The guards had left the door of his waiting room empty, and he stepped forward to get a closer look at the Baylors filing into their reserved seats. The members waiting to be tested sat in the forefront. 

Nevada Baylor appeared just as the news reports had shown her. A beautiful, lithe woman with honey-blond hair and a firmly clenched jaw. She was surely feeling the weight of her family’s future, but refused to bow to the pressure. A stalwart leader. 

Next to her was a wide-shouldered teenager, the cousin Bernard. With his physique, his magic would surely be physical or combat-based. 

Alessandro felt an involuntary intake of breath. There she was. His Catalina. 

He shook his head. His _test subject_ Catalina. 

She looked scared out of her wits. The stark pale color of her skin made the dark brown of her hair and eyes stand out even more. Silky hair. The kind of hair that would feel good tickling his face as she leaned over him…

As he watched her through the door crack, she flinched and rubbed her arm as though she sensed his eyes on her. 

Did he make her nervous? Is that why she’d deleted her account? 

_Good_ , he thought derisively. She deserved a little payback. He had gone out of his way to bestow her with the honor of his Insta-follow - an honor that multiple companies and several national governments had been willing to pay thousands, HUNDRED THOUSANDS of U.S. dollars for - and she had publicly rebuffed him. 

The nerve. The absolute nerve. He wanted to ask her about it. Confront her. Bother her. Make her flush. What would happen if he ran a finger down her arm while they talked? What color would she turn?

Alessandro shook his head. Suddenly he was the worst kind of sadist. A guard came around and apologized before closing the door and silence descended, leaving him with his tortured thoughts.

* * *

Catalina shuffled up to the chalk line, unwilling to make eye contact. 

Alessandro grinned at her. Despite the sting of animosity he felt, he still wanted her to do well in front of these Prime jackals. But he had no intention of holding back. Not after her Insta-betrayal.

“Do your worst,” he said in what he thought was an encouraging voice.

“Are you ready?” 

“Yes.” Catalina lowered her hands, and Alessandro swallowed a shocked intake of breath. 

The change had been instantaneous. Her eyes bored straight through him with intense clarity. He felt pinned in place by her gaze like a butterfly tacked onto a board by a collector. He wanted to tell every one of his sins, every misdeed, every drop of blood that stained his filthy hands. He wanted her to wash them away. 

“Do you live in Italy?”

A strong wave of her magic washed over him, but he stood fast against the current. He wasn’t the strongest antistasi Prime for nothing. He let her pull an answer from him. Call it charity. “Yes.” 

“There are nice beaches in Italy. One time I went to the beach with my family in Florida. The beaches there are not like they are here. The water is crystal clear, and the sand is white, and you can float for hours and hours, looking at little fishes. They dart around in the water and sometimes you can reach out and almost touch one.”

This was bad. Bad, bad, bad. Each word blended with her magic into swift-moving waves that threatened to overtake him. He was a lone tree standing in a forest against a torrential flood. The current wrapped around his ankles, trying to pull him into the undertow. Sweat beaded on his forehead from the effort to stand. 

“Do you like the beach?”

He gritted his teeth against the word, but it spilled from him anyway. “Yes.”

“I like swimming. One day I would like to go out on a boat. I was going to try the Jet Ski’s, but a storm came. We have terrible storms in Florida, and here in Texas, too. Do you have storms in Italy?”

She truly was a siren. Her magic was so strong he could practically feel himself adrift in its waters. Her voice lulled him deeper with each question. Each word she stole from him drew him further into her depths. 

Had he been a weaker mage, he would’ve only felt warm, crystal blue waters and swam happily down towards her. But, as strong as he was, there was no illusion of infatuation to protect his psyche. He was sunk. How had he misjudged her to this extent? 

This girl was no shrinking violet. She was a warrior. Her eyes burned with the desire to protect her family at all costs. And she was willing to drag Alessandro down to do it. 

With wide, clear eyes, Catalina dealt her killing blow.

“Come and tell me about it?”

The last wave was a sucker punch. Air escaped his lungs. He lost his footing and spiraled down, down to the icy blue depths. The wave swallowed him whole and he was happy to drown.

A single, primal thought burst through the darkness.

 ** _Mine_ ** **.**

Alessandro’s body charged forward. The need to touch her ripped through every synapse. His common sense, his impulses, his restraint were lost. Sunken. 

_Let me touch you - let me feel your warmth…_

Catalina was shying back. Fear and shock distorted her lovely features. 

_Don’t look that way - don’t go - don’t leave..._

He punched someone. Barely felt it. The hunger owned him. His hand extended forwards.

_Must reach her - must touch - must take…_

Suddenly, blood. The inside of his cheek. He had bitten it hard. The sharp taste coated the side of his tongue, and all at once the world righted itself. He nearly staggered from the force of his returned clarity. 

Blood. The stains on his hands. The evil in his veins. 

_Can’t taint her. Can’t let it near her. Not her._

Alessandro raised his head. Gone was the alluring, confident siren that had nearly overtaken him. Catalina stood frozen to the spot. Her shaking hands covered her mouth in horror. She lowered them just enough to whisper, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.” 

Dimly, he recognized several men were still clinging to him. Shame filled him at the memory of striking them. 

He gathered the last vestiges of his dignity and removed himself from their grips. “It’s fine. Let go of me. I said, it’s fine.” 

The handlers stepped back hesitantly. One was staunching the blood flowing from his nose.

Composure intact, Alessandro shook himself briefly and turned to the Keeper. “The young lady is a Prime.” 

He couldn’t even bring himself to say her name. Hot shame burned him at the loss of control. 

“The Office of Records thanks House Sagredo for their services.” 

Alessandro nodded, spun on his heel, and left without further word. 

At the edge of the arena, he turned to see her family congratulating her. She was still shaken, but clearly relieved. He watched a moment longer until a guard ushered him out. The last Baylor sister’s trial was to be secret as well. If she were anything like Catalina, there would be no question of their legitimacy. 

They seemed like a nice family. She was lucky to have them. Jealousy ached like a dull knife in his side. She would go home tonight with them and celebrate their win. Eat dinner together. Laugh and talk about the day they’d had. Poor Baylors. The hardest challenges were yet to come. Any Prime society could scent fresh blood in the deepest oceans, and the Baylors’ were not yet sharks. 

* * *

Alessandro stepped out onto the street. The roads were illuminated with the buttery yellow Texas sunset. 

Despite everything - their positions in society, the difference in power, her deleting her account to avoid him…. Despite it all, he wanted to see her again. 

That test, her sucker punch of power, the strength of her gaze. She had awoken an ache inside himself that he was too scared to name.

He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to bask in her calm nature, even just for a minute. To have a taste of that domestic tranquillity. To watch her awaken the warrior that slept innate within her. 

Catalina Baylor was a spark waiting to be fanned. And he was no stranger to playing with fire.

Maybe he could invite her on a drive...

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> First fic in a long time. I had this noodling around in my brain for the past year and finally decided to post it in celebration of Emerald Blaze's release! I cannot wait to read it. Thank you for reading this.


End file.
